Probably not the end of all this, but good for Universal to get something out directly to the 'coats.

havok | November 03, 18:54 CET

Uni are fan-centric hey?
It makes me ponder.
Tho its lovely of Chris to post, I notice his username is the same as one I saw posting on here the other day?
More ponderings.

ETA: Errrr...maybe I was wrong about that last bit. Ignore it ppl.

[ edited by nixygirl on 2006-11-03 18:12 ]

nixygirl | November 03, 20:03 CET

Chris is Chris Buchanan, Serenity's producer. He works for Zoic now, not Universal. Used to be President of Mutant Enemy, Joss' TV production company.

gossi | November 03, 21:29 CET

As some had previously mentioned as a possibility, it seems that their legal department was out of step with their marketing department or possibly the other way around. Those two sides of the company need to come together and work things out. I just hope that they might let us know what they have worked out, but unfortunately I doubt that's going to happen and we are going unfortunately see where the limits are by seeing who gets cease and desist letters and who doesn't. Even then it's a big unknown, as they might have skipped over someone simply because they did not come across them in their web searches. :(

Matt_Fabb | November 03, 21:29 CET

Well, I'm really glad to hear this. And almost laughing at what caused it (as described in 11th Hour's post that Chris Buchanan was replying to), but only almost. Severe over-reaction, but anyway.

And now I'm going shopping at 11th Hour's site. I see some neat things that will make wonderful Christmas gifts, for my non-Serenity/Firefly fan family members as well as for the ones who are.

Kyrax | November 03, 23:17 CET

I wonder if this whole business has increased sales of her cafepress shop lol. I guess the increase in profits(quite marginal i would imagine), doesn't justify the headache this caused her, ut I guess one has to look for the silver lining somewhere.

kurya | November 03, 23:29 CET

She may have sold a few more shirts, but she also lost a week of work due to stress and frantic legal researching. I don't think she came out ahead at all, here.

On the plus side, we now have a better idea of what will and won't fly as far as fan-made merchandise goes. Couple more C&D letters and we should be able to nail this down :)

C. A. Bridges | November 04, 09:08 CET

gossi, thank you for the update. IMO, we need to step back and give this some thought. This issue has been tumbling around my mind the past few days and I'm at a loss.

I think Universal Studios handled this matter poorly, there were certainly other methods available to protect (and promote) their copyright, I'm kinda' confused why they zeroed in on the top performer?

Again, I'm at a loss. This seems senseless.

Madhatter | November 04, 23:15 CET

I'm at a loss too.

After finally discovering what the issue was, it's stunning that such punitive and aggressive measures were being pursued against me. Months before Serenity was released, and back in the day where there was no licensed merchandise, I created an original image meant for fellow Browncoats to help put the word of "serenity" out in the world (as Universal encouraged us to do) in a simple, low key way. And this was an image that was only featured on some shirt backs on one page from my Cafe Press shop. I frankly forgot about it, and people wanted those shirts for the original art that was on the front anyway.

I still don't know why my shop was targeted when there were other shops which featured replicated official graphics and logos. Now understand, I wouldn't wish the kind of legal action I've been through on anyone. It's just that the way it all came down... doesn't make any sense.

11thHour | November 05, 00:54 CET

Googling for Serenity t-shirt terms on Google finds BlueSunShirts and your shop quite high on the list, Susan.

To be honest, I doubt the legal firm had a very high tech or thoughtful way of doing this. They will have used search engines, almost certainly, to search around.

As your lawyer said, your store looked professionally done. BlueSunShirts.com looked a bit like an official FOX site - it had logos, screen caps and stuff gallore.

gossi | November 05, 00:58 CET

Gorram Google...

11thHour | November 05, 01:02 CET

11thHour, bless you. We know the grist and you were wronged here. We will remember....

[ edited by Madhatter on 2006-11-04 23:44 ]

Madhatter | November 05, 01:43 CET